Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black lost to top seeds Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan and Peng Shuai of China in straight sets in the
women's doubles final of the BNP Paribas Open, a Premier WTA tournament, at Indian Wells.
The top seeds prevailed over the fifth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean combo 7-6(5), 6-2 in a contest that lasted an hour and 30 minutes, as they improved their perfect record in the WTA doubles finals to an 11-0 mark.
Sania and Cara started well, racing to a 4-2 lead in the first set and had a set point while serving at 6-5, but Hsieh and Peng fought back strongly to take the opening frame to a tie-breaker.
The number one team finally managed to win the set after nearly an hour's play.
"First set we were down when we started. It's really windy, and (they're also a) really good doubles team.
"Black has a lot of experience for the doubles and gave us like a lot pressure. Really happy to win again," said Peng.
In the second set, Hsieh and Peng hardly spared an inch to Sania and Cara, wrapping it up rather comfortably in the end.
Sania had once won the BNP Paribas Open women's double title with partner Elena Vesnina in 2011.